NormLane wrote:That's all beyond my level of expertise. I just want to get the wifi dongle I bought from Adafruit working or get a replacement that works.

hi norm,

if you want to get it working you'll need to let us assist you :)

another dongle will not do anything - it will be exactly the same, the a6 beagle bone requires the instructions found here, you should try this and we're willing to help you. if you're unable or unwilling to follow the instructions that are required for a complex product like the beagle bone this you are welcome to return it for a full refund. this is not a beginner product - but we can and will do our best to assist you - otherwise email support@adafruit.com and we'll arrange a return/refund.

bickhardt basically says, in the end, that your dongle doesn't work. Are you in agreement with that?

another dongle will not do anything - it will be exactly the same, the a6 beagle bone

You sold me an a5. Does that matter? I installed the a6 OS which seems to work fine.

requires the instructions found here, you should try this and we're willing to help you. if you're unable or unwilling to follow the instructions that are required for a complex product like the beagle bone this you are welcome to return it for a full refund. this is not a beginner product - but we can and will do our best to assist you - otherwise email support@adafruit.com and we'll arrange a return/refund.

That's patronizing. I'm am at least old enough to be your father so cut it out

In his last post, bickhardt says...

Now, when I had achieved this, it turns out it also works with the mini-wifi adapter from Adafruit. However (due to the weak signal strength?) it only works now and then.

I think a comment from the vendor would be very appropriate here. Does this wifi dongle work consistently or not? If it does work what part of bickhardt's post(s) is correct and what part is wrong?

I'm not going to the trouble to ship a $20 item back. If it does not in fact work I'll toss it in the box with the Async_Labs junk that hardly ever worked.

we're doing our best to assist you, we're sorry it did not work out and we could not help you with this. we really did try the best we could. we found it works fine with A5's using the A5 image. not sure why you may be having problem, we never had weak signal strength issues - it could be a wireless router setup. we would not ask you to ship the item back.

we have refunded that portion of your order - once again, we're sorry we could not assist you better with this. just to be clear, we're not patronizing you or anyone at all - forum posts are not in-person interactions and can be read in ways that are not intended - we apologize if you feel we've said or done anything that offended you.

Let me repeat that the dongle worked fine on a Windows 7 box. It was in the same location so I don't think it was related to distance. I assume this means it's some interaction between the dongle and the Beaglebone. I don't know if that's helpful or not. I did use the external power source by the way so it wasn't that.

I actually have a workaround. I have a portable wifi router that I can plug the bb into. It's an automotive application so the extra power consumption isn't too important although I would prefer a smaller package.

Whatever it is (and I still think it is related to to the weak signal reception) here is a protocol:after booting up to no avail with the mini-adapter, I simply insert the other adapter.. et voila it works!and it kept the connection (on wifi alone) for 48 hours in a stretch (the I rebooted)!

You can boot with no dongle, but then you have to connect via USB or eth0 to access the bb. In the latter case you then have to do the "./connman-test connect <service> thing to use wifi after inserting the dongle when you don´t pull the eth-plug. Or pull the plug, then insert the dongle.

If you want the beaglebone to e.g. collect sensor data, then you can boot with no connection to the host, and insert the dongle later in which case it should start up the connection automatically, too.

I have also been trying to get the BeagleBone working with the Adafruit / Monoprice mini USB wireless adapter (Realtek RTL8192CU). I also have a Belkin F7D1101 USB wireless adapter (Realtek RTL8188SU) and an EDUP EP-MS150ND USB wireless adapter (Ralink RT5370).

The Adafruit is the only one that supports master (soft AP) mode which is what is required for tethering (connman's answer to not supporting ad hoc connections). This is a must-have feature for the application that I'm building the BeagleBone into. So, I was trying really hard to get the Adafruit adapter to work and not go buy another one hoping that the chip set supports master (AP, soft AP, etc.) mode since this information is usually hard to find on distributor and manufacturer websites.

Unfortunately I've seen A LOT of stability issues with BeagleBone / connman / and the Adafruit adapter. I've tried two different powered USB hubs with the Adafruit adapter and it didn't help. Even with line power via the DC jack I had very little success getting the adapter to work at all when connected directly to the BeagleBone USB port.

I've also seen issues where an established connection to an access point is disconnected after a while. Additionally, after deliberately disconnecting from an access point (within a few seconds) the device stops being able to scan for any access points at all until I reboot. I don't know if it's the device or the driver, but it's frustrating to say the least. I have another adapter (ASUS USB-N13 rev B1) with the same chipset on order to help determine if it's the device, the driver, connman, etc..

The Belkin adapter doesn't seem to suffer from the same disconnect problems, but it doesn't support master mode. If Adafruit ends up changing to a different device, make sure it supports master / soft AP mode!

I purchased an ASUS USB-N13 802.11n Network Adapter (rev. B1) [Realtek RTL8192CU] to see if it was the device or the driver and I am having the same sort of stability problems with the device. So, I'm beginning to suspect the RTL8192CU driver that ships with the BeagleBone. I looked at Realtek's website and they updated their Linux software on 7/4/2012. I'll give that a try and post back if it improves anything.

On another note, I've been using a Belkin F7D1101 USB wireless adapter (Realtek RTL8188SU) from Best Buy and it's been extremely stable.

My wifi adapter (http://www.adafruit.com/products/814) has been working much better after downloading the Nov 2012 driver from RealTek and compiling the module on the BeagleBone (Angstrom v2012.05 kernel 3.2.34).

My wifi adapter (http://www.adafruit.com/products/814) has been working much better after downloading the Nov 2012 driver from RealTek and compiling the module on the BeagleBone (Angstrom v2012.05 kernel 3.2.34).

"When you make a thing, a thing that is new, it is so complicated making it that it is bound to be ugly. But those that make it after you, they don’t have to worry about making it. And they can make it pretty, and so everybody can like it when others make it after you" - Pablo Picasso